Enterprise users are been urged to apply workarounds following the discovery of a potentially troublesome vulnerability involving a component of HP's widely used network management suite, HP OpenView. A security bug in Network Node Manager opens the door to possible hacker attack, according to work by security researchers at Portcullis Computer Security and NGS Software.

Network Node Manager (NNM) allows networks managers to monitor and control the operation of network devices. The flaw creates a means for hackers to execute potentially malicious shell commands by exploiting inadequate input checks involving scripts (e.g. cgi-bin/connectedNodes.ovpl) used by various versions of NNM. The vulnerability affects versions 6.2, 6.4, 7.01, and 7.50 of OpenView NNM running on HP-UX, Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Linux systems.

Exploitation is far from trivial. Nonetheless HP advises users to apply a workaround which involves moving affected scripts - connectedNodes.ovpl, cdpView.ovpl, freeIPaddrs.ovpl and ecscmg.ovpl - to another directory. HP's advisory is available from its customer support web site here (customer registration required). Security clearing house Secunia has a useful summary here. ®